Duncan Keith To The Panthers?

Duncan Keith To The Panthers?

Changes are coming to the Chicago Blackhawks roster this offseason, it's pretty much guaranteed.

We've heard rumblings near the end of the season that the "core four" could be broken up going forward, however with all holding no movement clauses it would have to take an ideal move.

There's one possibility that's currently blowing up social media....

Duncan Keith gets traded to the Florida Panthers.

Panthers general manager and former Blackhawks general manager Dale Tallon stated recently that landing an experienced defenseman is at the top of the Panthers wish list.

On the surface this seems highly improbable, Keith is the best Hawks defenseman out of a questionable group, he's got a lot of charity stuff going on in Chicago and of course and his son living in Chicago.

Under the surface this might make a lot of sense, the Hawks open up cap space and continue to get younger which is needed and for Keith, he'll save a lot of money. While his cap hit stays at $5.5million until 2022-23, his base salary starts dwindling this year. Keith will make $4.5million this upcoming season as a base salary, $3.5million the year after, $2.6million after that and it continues to get smaller the rest of the way.

A move to Florida would send Keith somewhere with no state tax, and Keith would be well insulated in Florida surrounded by guys like Aaron Ekblad and Keith Yandle on the blue line.

The deal would be a huge flashback to the 2011 Brian Campbell trade, at the time Campbell had a no trade clause and five years left on his contract just like Keith, after refusing to waive his no trade clause, he eventually did and found his way to Florida.

I'd like to note now that Tyler has called this and it's a really fun concept, both from a Blackhawks' youth/cap perspective and from an "all of this has happened before" Brian Campbell trade perspective. https://t.co/nuuTBDLdwC— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) May 1, 2018